Free Web NovelChapter 10: A Glass Untouched
Meanwhile.
Evelyn sat on the sofa, a glass of red wine in her hand.
The wine gleamed dark red beneath the lights, but she hadn’t taken a sip in ages. The room was quiet. Night pressed against the window glass, and the city lights spread far into the distance, bright and glittering, but none of that glow reached the frustration buried in her eyes.
"Evelyn, what’s bothering you?"
Claire, seated across from her, watched her for a while before finally speaking.
"Too much money and no idea how to spend it?"
Claire Bennett came from money herself. Her family was worth around thirty million dollars, enough to put her far above most people.
But compared to Evelyn Sterling, that kind of money barely counted as rich.
Evelyn’s parents had built the Sterling Group from the ground up. When they handed it over to her a year ago, the company was already valued at around six billion dollars.
The Sterling family held a controlling fifty-one percent stake.
Evelyn was capable, and the timing had worked in her favor. After her parents stepped back from day-to-day operations and moved overseas, the group’s value climbed to nearly eight billion.
The Sterling family’s share alone was worth more than four billion dollars.
Evelyn was her parents’ only child.
One day, all of it would be hers.
But money didn’t make Evelyn feel any lighter now. She looked down at the glass in her hand, fingertips resting against the bowl for several seconds before she finally spoke.
"I sent Cici to Lucas."
"What?"
Claire sat up straight. The teasing vanished from her face.
She was Evelyn’s best friend. She knew what had happened back then. And because she knew, she understood exactly how sudden this decision was.
"Evelyn, do you want to be with Lucas?"
Evelyn shook her head.
"I don’t."
Her voice was calm, but not because there was nothing underneath it. It was the kind of calm that came from forcing every ripple down into the deepest part of herself.
"He and I are from two different worlds. We’re not right for each other."
Claire didn’t answer right away. She only looked at her.
Evelyn took a sip of red wine. It slid down her throat, but her expression remained cool.
"It was Cici," she said. "She said she wanted a dad."
She set the glass down, her voice lowering.
"She’s a little over two now. She’s starting to understand things. When she sees other children with their dads, she gets so envious. When other kids say she doesn’t have a dad, she gets really upset."
At that, Evelyn’s fingers tightened slightly.
Claire watched her face and sighed.
"Evelyn, have you ever thought about finding someone and getting married?"
Evelyn was silent for a moment.
"There’s a good chance I can’t have any more children," Evelyn said quietly. "If I marry a man who wants kids of his own, what do you think happens five or ten years from now?"
She lowered her eyes.
"He starts resenting me. Or he finds someone else who can give him that. Either way, Cici gets hurt."
The room went quiet. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Claire opened her mouth, but in the end, she didn’t argue.
Evelyn was too calm. So calm it didn’t sound like she was talking about her own marriage at all. It sounded like she was evaluating a risk report she’d already reviewed countless times.
And at the end of that report was Cici’s name.
"Besides, I have Cici. That’s enough for me," Evelyn said.
Claire leaned back into the sofa and looked at her.
"Lucas is Cici’s father. So what are you worried about? He’s him, you’re you. You share a child. There’s nothing wrong with that."
Evelyn looked back down at the wineglass, her voice going low.
"I’m worried about Cici." freeωebnovēl.c૦m
She finally lifted her head and looked at Claire. "Can Lucas really take good care of her?"
"Evelyn, what’s Lucas’s situation right now?" Claire asked.
Evelyn held the glass, her fingertips resting against its side. Only a shallow ring of red wine remained, gently swaying, but she had no interest in drinking it.
"He was laid off last month," she said. "He’s living in a rented one-bedroom apartment now. It’s under forty square meters."
Claire frowned.
Evelyn looked down at the wine in her glass, her voice dropping. "If Cici didn’t truly want a dad so badly, I never would have sent her to Lucas to suffer."
Claire leaned against the sofa and spoke bluntly. "Lucas is in really bad shape. You still need to give him some money. No matter what, you can’t let Cici suffer with him."
"I left him twenty thousand dollars."
"How much?"
"Twenty thousand dollars," Evelyn said. "I told him it was three months of living expenses."
Claire looked at her without answering right away.
Evelyn placed the wineglass on the coffee table. The base of the glass tapped softly against the surface.
"Do you think I gave too little?" she asked. "But I’m afraid of giving too much too. If Lucas starts leaning on the fact that he’s Cici’s father, he might get ideas."
Claire understood.
"You’re afraid he’ll start pestering you and never let go?"
Evelyn didn’t deny it.
Claire thought for a moment, then said, "Twenty thousand dollars is enough for them to live pretty well if they’re careful. Money isn’t the most important thing. Whether he can take care of Cici properly depends on whether he’s willing to put in the effort."
Evelyn nodded.
"We’ll see after a while," she said. "Even if it doesn’t last three months, twenty thousand dollars should at least make sure they live decently for one month."
At that, she stood.
"I should go." Evelyn picked up her bag. "I’m flying to Minnesota tomorrow. My mom is having surgery at Mayo Clinic. This surgery is important."
Claire stood too, her tone softening.
"Your mom will be fine. She’s at Mayo Clinic. The doctors there know what they’re doing."
She paused, then added, "And don’t think too much about Cici. Lucas is her father. No matter what his situation is now, he wouldn’t mistreat his own daughter."
Evelyn didn’t speak.
Claire walked to her side and patted her arm.
"Go stay with your mother for a few days. Cici will be fine."
Evelyn nodded.
Before long, she got into a Bentley.
Before the car door closed, Claire saw the woman sitting in the front seat. She wasn’t an ordinary driver. She was also a professional bodyguard Evelyn had hired. Another female bodyguard stayed close to Evelyn as well, moving with crisp efficiency, her eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.
The car soon drove away.
Claire stood in the doorway and watched the taillights disappear around the corner.
"What a waste," Claire murmured.
She sighed under her breath.
Evelyn came from a good family and was beautiful too. If not for what happened three years ago, she could have made a very good match. At least in Claire’s view, Evelyn shouldn’t have trapped herself inside all these worries.
Fortunately, after Evelyn had been drugged three years ago, the person she ended up meeting was Lucas.
If she had fallen into the hands of the person who drugged her that night, the whole thing would have sunk its teeth into her for the rest of her life, impossible to shake off no matter how hard she tried.
Thinking of that, Claire’s brows drew together.
"If only Lucas were a little more impressive."
She murmured to herself.
If that were the case, Evelyn and Lucas might not be impossible. But Lucas was too ordinary. Ordinary in college, and not much better after graduation. Now he’d been laid off and was living in a tiny rental apartment. The gap between him and Evelyn was right there, plain as day, no matter how much anyone pretended not to see it.
The only thing Lucas had going for him was probably that he was fairly handsome.
Claire rubbed her temple.
"I’ll go check on them in a few days."
For the first three or four days, even if Lucas didn’t take care of her well, it would be understandable. A daughter had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. No one could adapt to that instantly.
...
